In recent years, a great development or practical use is appreciated in the field of 8mm video, digital audio tape players or other magnetic recording apparatuses including a rotary head to effect digital recording.
Such a magnetic recording apparatus gives more reliable and improved image and sound quality than a prior art apparatus using a fixed head. However, the use of a rotary head requires a mechanism for driving the rotary head, a tape loading mechanism for winding a tape on the rotary head and other related mechanisms. This invites an increase in the number of parts and in the mounting space of the apparatus. Therefore, a dimensional decrease and a structural simplification are strong demands in the field of these magnetic recording apparatuses.
In a magnetic recording apparatus of this type, cassette insertion and ejection are effected by moving right and left cassette holders along guide grooves of right and left side plates in a space defined by the vertically standing side plates and a horizontal connection plate connecting the side plates.
In this arrangement, a cassette loaded in a mode position cannot be seen from the exterior of the apparatus. Therefore, it sometimes occurs that another cassette is inserted erroneously in addition to the former cassette already head in the interior of the apparatus. This often causes the latter cassette to hit opposed interior walls of the apparatus or causes the tape to be pulled out of the cassette. In order to prevent this trouble, a prior art apparatus is provided with a double insertion preventing mechanism comprising a particular stoppers which cover the surface of a loaded cassette to prevent insertion of a second cassette.
However, the use of the particular stoppers increases the number of parts and complicates the construction of the apparatus. Additionally, the particular stoppers are usually mounted on the cassette holders pivotably in response to a movement thereof, considering their function, and the particlar stoppers reach high when the cassette holders are elevated. This obviously causes a dimensional increase of the apparatus.
Further, an 8 mm video cassette includes an inner lid, the inner lid which often hits a dust door at a cassette insertion/ejection aperture if the inner lid stands high upon ejection of the cassette, and prevents smooth ejection of the cassette.